Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

RACER TEST James Whitham's Suzuki GSX·R750 Instead, like the Ansett bike, the works GSX-R750 has a smooth, linear power delivery from 8000 rpm upward that doesn't have a hiccup or power step in·it - not even a sudden rush of extra acceleration in the five-figure zone, as do so many of its rivals. And that's the problem. It just builds power progressively all through the rev range, which explains why the Suzuki is such an effective rain bike. It has a constant character, enginewise, so you know where you are with it all the time. However, this isn't what you need nowadays if you want to wjn superbike races in the dry. You need explosive midrange power from, say, 10,000 rpm upward on a four-cylinder bike like this - and that the Suzuki just doesn't have, much less lower down, where you can feel it struggle to get on the boil out of a tight tUIl) like the Assen chicane. You' also don't have the vivid spurt of engine acceleration as you enter the superpower zone up high, like on the RC45 Honda - just a linear buildup to the highly respectable 165 bhp that Suzuki says is delivered at the rear wheel at 14,000 rpm. Combined with the svelte, quite aerodynamic GSX-R styling, this helps deliver that impressive turn. of speed - but because the power builds so progressively to that peak, this means the riders have to keep the engine revving hard if they By Alan Cathcart Photos by Guus van Goethem (statics & action) & Kel Edge. (action) he one great imponderable of modern-day superbike racing - at almost any level, in almost any country - is why the new Suzuki GSXR750 isn't at the top of the heap. Here is a motorcycle that on paper should rule the world, developed as it is according to ultra-modern design precepts, with the single-minded intention of winning superbike races. 011., and topping sportbike sales charts, and blitzing the box-stock 750cc Supersport class on the race track, both' of which it's succeeded admirably in doing. But a winner in superbike racing at world or, ·excepting Australia, national level, it ain't - though, perhaps ironically for a machine unfairly perceived by some as a short-fused four-strqke GP bike, the Suzuki did win the World Endurance title this year, in the hands of Peter Goddard and Doug Polen. "God's" name recalls the fact that I had previously ridden the Ansett Suzuki (Issue #38, September 24, 1997) which won the '96 Aussie Superbike title in his hands but could only manage a close runner-up slot this year, ril'1den by Goddard's protege Tro)' Bayliss - who still comprehensively outgunned the Britishbased Harris-run works team on h.ome ground at Phillip Island in March, with a pair of fifth places which, at that point, were the highest World Superbike finishes ever achieved by a Suzuki rider. Apart from the Aussie bike's Dunlop tires and Ohlins suspension, this was a carbon copy of the works World Superbike racers run by Britain's Harris team. But having ridden James Whitham's works Harris bike at Assen, I'm in a unique position to compare and contrast the two motorcycles - which, says Lester Harris, have nearly identical specifications. That's a point worth making. Unlike, say, the team's Honda rivals, Suzuki makes available for customer sale (to anyone who can afford them) (Above) Was the Suzuki World Superbike team towing the line? No, they just had trouble holding it - power understeer was one of the team's biggest troubles with the GSX-R750. (Right) Good aerodYllamics helped the Suzuki achieve high top-speed figures throughout the season. racer kits with the same level of specifi. cation as its works superbikes - and at a relatively reasonable cost for what is a pretty potent package. Small change out of £75,000 is reasonable? Well, compared to the million-dollar one-year lease fee. (not sale price!) for a factory 500cc GP bike, or around half that for, say, a works Ducati superbike, yes, it is.... Though they spent a good many races tied together with bungee cords, Suzuki team newcomer Mike Hale wound up 11th in the 1997 World Championship, three below teammate Whitham, whose two rostrum finishes in successive races at Hockenheim and Monza are so far the only time in two seasons that a GSX-R750 has made it to victory circle. Hale has since departed from the team to' campaign the AMA Superbike Series on a Fast By Feracci DncatL Those two results say it all: One was achieved on a power circuit where speed is everything (and the Suzuki has plenty of that, consistently topping the speed-trap hit parade throughout the season on a variety of tracks); And at Monza - another fast circuit, bu t with a lot more turns - that other podium place was achieved in a wet race, when Whitham emphasized the Suzuki's smooth power delivery and good track manners in the rain (aided by the good grip from Michelin's rain tires). My ride at Assen underlined that smooth, manageable power. The 16valve 72 x 46mm engine is very powerful and fast-revving, but it isn't the light switch I was expecting to ride after hearing the riders' complaints about lack of low-end and midrange power - in spite of the larger 42mm Mikuni flat-slides homologated for this season, up from 40mm in '96. , But while the bigger carbs are surely a factor in the Suzuki's impressive- topend performance, this isn't at the cost of an abrupt power delivery'or snatchy pickup. want competitive horsepower - and this makes the Suzuki hard to ride. . As I suspected when testing the Ansett bike, which the Aussie team only runs to 13,500 rpm (perhaps as a safety move, since they have just the one bike per rider), it pays to rev the Suzuki right out. Whitham has a shifter light flashing in front of him on the dashboard tllllt tells him when the tachometer is read~ Ing 14,000, and anytime after that you can lift your foot under the gear pedal, before the 14,500-rpm cutout on the revlimiter. Yes, that's right - alone of all the top riders in WSC, Whitham uses a roadpattern one-up gearshift, and not only is this a nuisance in terms of speed-shifting (though the Suzuki system is a clean, precise one), it also means you're groping for room to shift up cranked hard over to the left on the way out at a turn. Riding this bike at Misano, with its three fast lefts onto the main straigl).t, must be really problematic.

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